Generally, when a fuel cell stack is manufactured, several tens of sheets of Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEAs) are stacked and transferred and thus, when a material is supplied, several sheets of MEAs are stacked and transferred. In this case, both sides of an MEA are formed of different catalysts and thus due to surface contact between MEAs, property change may occur. Therefore, an interleaf may be inserted between MEAs for protection during manufacturing processes of a multi-layer MEA product.
The interleaf is usually an intermediate paper made of Polyethylene (PE) and produces static electricity with a sub gasket portion of an MEA, such that in MEA transfer, two or three sheets of materials are transferred at a time, causing some problem in performing a subsequent process. Therefore, in the worst scenario, material damage may occur.
That is, to manufacture a finished multi-layer MEA product, the interleaf may be removed and then only an MEA may be transferred and used. Due to static electricity between the MEA and the interleaf, if the MEA and the interleaf are transferred at the same time, it would cause a problem in a manufacturing process for the finished product.
In other words, when an MEA, which is a main component, is transferred in fuel cell stack manufacturing, due to static electricity between the interleaf inserted between every two MEAs stacked in multiple layers and MEAs, a subsequent process is degraded, increasing a malfunction rate and a defect rate of devices.
To solve the problems, conventionally, in addition to a finished multi-layer MEA product manufacturing device, a static electricity removing apparatus for electric-charging material is installed in a predetermined position to blow ionized air to MEAs stacked in an MEA cartridge (a means for supplying MEAs to the manufacturing device), thus removing static electricity between the MEAs and the interleaf to reduce a malfunction rate and a defect rate of the finished multi-layer MEA assemble device.
The MEA cartridge merely stacks and receives several tens of sheets of MEAs and sequentially supplies them.
The conventional static electricity removing apparatus is configured separately from the manufacturing device, such that a distance from the static electricity removing apparatus to the MEA is relatively large and thus the ionized air arrives at the MEA after moving a predetermined distance from the static electricity removing apparatus As a result, it would be difficult to obtain a static electricity removing effect at a desired level.